|
Foreign Office Minister Lord Triesman has
reiterated that British policy is to maintain diplomatic contacts with Iran
to address "serious concerns" on a wide range of subjects.
"We do not underestimate the difficulty in making
progress, but these issues are too important for us to ignore. Our policy is
to bring our concerns to Iran's attention, engage Iran in discussion and
look for solutions," he said.
The minister was replying to questions during a brief debate in the House of
Lords Wednesday asking what representations the UK government plans to make
in the immediate future to the government of Iran.
With regard to Iran's nuclear program, Triesman confirmed that Britain was
still seeking support in the UN Security Council even though there had been
only limited success.
"That is not an easy matter and not everybody cooperates with it, but that
seems to us to be the right perspective, which we should pursue," he told
his fellow peers.
The Foreign Office minister rejected a call by Liberal Democrat peer, Lord
Alton, who is a leading supporter to the Muhajedin-e Khalq (MKO), to
deproscribe the group from Britain's outlawed terrorist organizations.
Triesman said that the "evidence is compelling" about the sequence of events
that led the UK to proscribe the MKO as a terrorist group under the
country's Terrorism Act 2000.
|
|